Democrats call for narrowing digital divide to help students during pandemic

Ensuring all US households have high-speed internet will help provide similar education opportunities to students at different income levels, particularly during the pandemic, Democrats said. “Education justice involves giving everybody the same access to information,” said Rep. Donna Shalala (D-FL). The digital divide exacerbated by the pandemic “is about opportunity” and needs to be narrowed, said Rep Shalala. “We need a national policy of 100 percent of our households online,” said Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “No individual, household, or community is going to have a fair shot at success in the 21st century without it.” Margaret Spellings, who was secretary of Education during the George W. Bush administration, also expressed concern about the amount of attention to the educational divide by officials at all levels of government, saying “we are at risk of losing a generation of kids.”